Hot. And you in hell, as often as he hears
Owen Glendower spoke of.

Glend. I cannot blame him: 8 at my nativity
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
Of burning creffets; and at my birth
The frame and the foundation of the earth
Shook like a coward.

Hot. Why, fo it would have done

At the fame feafon, if your mother's cat
Had kitten'd, though yourself had ne'er been born.
Glend. I fay, the earth did shake when I was born.
Hot. And I fay, the earth was not of my mind,
If you fuppofe, as fearing you it fhook.

Glend. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble.

Hot. O, then the earth fhook to fee the heavens on fire,

And not in fear of your nativity.

9 Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth
In ftrange eruptions: oft the teeming earth
Is with a kind of cholic pinch'd and vex'd,
By the imprisoning of unruly wind

Within her womb; which, for enlargement ftriving,
Shakes the old beldame earth, and topples down
Steeples, and mofs-grown towers. At your birth,
Our grandam earth, having this diftemperature,
In paffion fhook.

Glend. Coufin, of many men

I do not bear these croffings. Give me leave

66

8 at my nativity, &c.] Moft of thefe prodigies appear to have been invented by Shakespeare. Holinfhed fays only, Strange wonders happened at the nativity of this man; for "the fame night he was born, all his father's horfes in the "ftable were found to stand in biood up to their bellies." STEEVENS.

9 Difeafed nature-] The poet has here taken, from the perverfenefs and contrarioufnefs of Hotfpur's temper, an opportunity of raifing his character, by a very rational and philofophical confutation of fuperftitious error. JOHNSON,

Το

To tell you once again, that at my birth
The front of heaven was full of fiery fhapes;
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
Thefe figns have mark'd me extraordinary;
And all the courses of my life do fhew,

I am not in the roll of common men.
Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea,
That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,
Who calls me pupil, or hath read to me?

And bring him out, that is but woman's fon,

Can trace me in the tedious ways

of art, Or hold me pace in deep experiments.

Hot. I think there is no man fpeaks better Welsh.— I will to dinner.

Mort. Peace, coufin Percy; you will make him mad.

Glend. I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hot. Why, fo can I; or fo can any man: But will they come, when you do call for them? Glend. Why, I can teach thee, coufin, to command

The devil.

Hot. And I can teach thee, coufin, to shame the devil,

By telling truth: Tell truth and fhame the devil.-
If thou haft power to raise him, bring him hither,
And I'll be fworn, I've power to fhame him hence.
O, while you live, tell truth, and shame the devil.
Mort. Come, come!

No more of this unprofitable chat.

Glend. Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head

Against my power: thrice, from the banks of Wye, And fandy-bottom'd Severn, have I fent

Him bootless home, and weather-beaten, back.

Hot. Home, without boots, and in foul weather

too!

How 'scapes he agues, in the devil's name?

Glend.

Glend. Come, here's the map: fhall we divide our right,

According to our three-fold order taken?

Mort. The archdeacon hath divided it
Into three limits, very equally :

England, from Trent, and Severn hitherto,
By fouth and eaft, is to my part affign'd:
All weftward, Wales, beyond the Severn fhore,
And all the fertile land within that bound,
To Owen Glendower; and, dear coz, to you
The remnant northward, lying off from Trent.
And our indentures tripartite are drawn:
Which being fealed interchangeably,
(A business that this night may execute)
To-morrow, coufin Percy, you and I,
And my good lord of Wor'fter, will fet forth
To meet your father and the Scottish power,
As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury.
My father Glendower is not ready yet,
Nor fhall we need his help thefe fourteen days:
Within that space, you may have drawn together
Your tenants, friends, and neighbouring gentlemen.
[To Glendower.
Glend. A fhorter time fhall fend me to you,

lords,

And in my conduct fhall your ladies come;
From whom you now muft fteal, and take no leave:
For there will be a world of water fhed,

Upon the parting of your wives and you.

Hot. Methinks, my moiety, north from Burton here,

In quantity equals not one of yours.

See, how this river comes me cranking in,
And cuts me, from the best of all my land,
A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out.
I'll have the current in this place damm'd up;
And here the fmug and filver Trent shall run
In a new channel, fair and evenly:

It fhall not wind with fuch a deep indent,
To rob me of fo rich a bottom here.

2

Glend.

Glend. Not wind? it fhall, it must; you fee it doth. Mort. But mark, he bears his course, and runs me up With like advantage on the other fide,

Gelding the oppofed continent as much,
As on the other fide it takes from you.

Wor. Yes, but a little charge will trench him here,
And on this north-fide win this cape of land,
And then he runs ftraight and even.

Hot. I'll have it fo; a little charge will do it.
Glend. I will not have it alter'd.

Hot. Will not you?

Glend. No, nor you shall not.

Hot. Who fhall fay me nay?

Glend. Why, that will I.

Hot. Let me not understand you then; Speak it in Welsh.

Glend. I can fpeak English, lord, as well as you; For I was train'd up in the English court,

Where, being young, I framed to the harp
Many an English ditty, lovely well,

And gave the tongue a helpful ornament;
A virtue that was never seen in you.

Hot. Marry, and I'm glad of it with all my heart; I had rather be a kitten, and cry, mew,

Than one of these fame metre-ballad-mongers:
I had rather hear 2 a brazen candlestick turn'd,
Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree;
And that would nothing fet my teeth on edge,
Nothing fo much as mincing poetry;
'Tis like the forc'd gait of a fhuffling nag.
Glend. Come, you fhall have Trent turn'd.
Hot. I do not care: I'll give thrice fo much land
To any well-deferving friend;

2

-the tongue-] The English language. JOHNSON.

a brazen candlestick turn'd,] The word candlestick, which deftroys the harmony of the line, was anciently written canftick. Heywood, and feveral of the old writers, conftantly fpell it in this manner. STEEVENS,

But,

But, in the way of bargain, mark ye me,
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.

Are the indentures drawn? fhall we be gone?
Glend. The moon fhines fair, you may away by
night :

3.(I'll hafte the writer) and, withal,

Break with your wives of your departure hence.
I am afraid, my daughter will run mad,
So much fhe doateth on her Mortimer.

[Exit.

Mort. Fie, coufin Percy, how you cross my father! Hot. I cannot choofe. Sometimes he angers me, With telling of the moldwarp and the ant, Of the dreamer Merlin, and his prophecies; And of a dragon, and a finless fish, A clip-wing griffin, and a moulting raven, A couching lion, and a ramping cat, And fuch a deal of fkimble-fkamble stuff, As puts me from my faith. I tell you whatHe held me the last night at least nine hours, In reckoning up the feveral devils names

That were his lacqueys: I cry'd, bum,—and well,-go

to,

But mark'd him not a word. O, he's as tedious
As is a tired horfe, a railing wife;

3 (I'll hafte the writer)] He means the writer of the articles. POPE.

4 of the mold-warp and the ant,] This alludes to an old prophecy, which is faid to have induced Owen Glendower to take arms against king Henry. See Hall's Chronicle, fo. 20.

POPE.

So, in The Mirror of Magiftrates, written by Phaer, the old tranflator of Virgil, Owen Glendower is introduced fpeaking of himself,

"And for to fet us hereon more agog,

"A prophet came (a vengeance take them all!)
Affirming Henry to be Gogmagog,

"Whom Merlin doth a mould-warpe ever call,
"Accurs'd of God, that must be brought in thrall,
By a wolfe, a dragon, and a lion ftrong,

"Which fhould divide his kingdom them among."

STEEVENS.

Worfe